In the Old Hall

Some years back I worked on a music video shot in a mixed-use warehouse in Brooklyn. I handled playback – the music the band acted and reacted to in take after take.

Different parts of the place were in various states of disrepair, repair and renovation. The section we were working in had several walls of windows where nothing had been done, and I think a more finished and functional center – with bathrooms, and the lot.

It was the run-down industrial look the band was after, or the producer of the music video at least. It was the sort of space you see used as backdrops for everything from fashion shoots to car commercials.

I’ve always liked these sorts of spaces and recently I was again handling sound in one of them – though this time it was live sound for a community concert at The Glen Conservancy, part of its first-annual Harvest Festival.

The space was formerly a Dutch Reformed Church meetinghouse according to this bit in the Daily Gazette.

The event and dinner that followed, was partly conceived as a way to honor a member of the band who succumbed to stage-four lung cancer several months back. He’d done a lot of work on the building, stabilizing it. “The sorts of things you don’t see,” as it was described to me.

I sort hope they never bring it all the way back. You know, leave a feature wall or section of the ceiling? Clearly it needs to be made seaworthy, so-to-speak. They need to keep out the birds that roost there. More heat needs to be kept in, perhaps, or it will be limited to just 3 seasons use.

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It’s a cool old building and depending on the details, I may try to set up a day of portrait sessions therein – but I think we’ll wait until spring when we can count on a little more light and roads clear enough for my subjects and I to get there.

In the meantime – I wonder if I could find that music video online. I’ve never seen the darned thing.

Thanks for taking a look. You can also find, follow & like Jonathan Ment Photography on Facebook & at www.catskillsphotographer.com and check out the broad-topic’d “Observational Ramblings” of the Ment Media Group’s “Business Blog.”